Tart or sweet, lemonade sells. Especially when stirred and poured by a cute and industrious neighborhood kid.

Kid-run lemonade stands have endured for a reason: they're easy to set up, cheap to run, and the profit margins are high. Any 10-year-old can do it. But some do it with a twist, putting their own personal stamp on the venture. Here are ways some kids have tailored their endeavors to fit the occasion:

1. Give it away for free. That's what Doug Mades of Newburyport, Mass., did and it paid off in spades. An only child with an introverted bent, his parents thought setting up a lemonade stand would help him meet more people while also garnering him valuable business lessons. Doug's father, Dan Mades, tells ParentDish in a phone interview that it was about the experience, not the money: "It's the best lemonade that money can't buy."

But that didn't stop people from giving him tips or donations. Doug first set out at age 6 with a gallon of homemade lemonade and due to his early success, continued most summer weekends for the next five years. He is now 15 years old and retired from his lemonade-stand enterprise, but the money he made over that time is sitting pretty in a certificate of deposit, accruing interest for his college years. According to his father, Doug made more than just a few hundred dollars. "What Doug was able to save in his Certificate of Deposit is more on the order of a year's college tuition."

2. Appeal to the community. Six-year-old Jackson Parks of Rock Hill, Mo., set up a lemonade stand this April to help Matt Crosby, a local police officer who was critically injured in the line of duty, pay his medical bills. That made his purpose tangible and relevant to his neighbors. People wanted to help this little boy help this officer and of course they wanted to help the officer too. Case in point: Rock Hill's mayor, Julie Morton, bought a glass for $50. It's a win-win-win all around.

3. Diversify your wares. Calista Pierce started out with lemonade but quickly realized the ubiquitous thirst-quencher might not be enough to realize her personal goal of raising $6,000 for the Crawford County Special Olympics. Her mission, like Jackson Parks, is to raise money for someone in need. That person is her brother, Austin, who navigates life in a wheelchair as a result of progressive muscular dystrophy. Calista makes and sells various crafts including leaf necklaces, angel pins, wish pennies and Christmas ornaments, with nothing costing more than $5.

Jackson Parks and his bucket of good will.
Photo courtesy of Jordan Parks.

4. Harness the power of social media. Jackson's lemonade stand collected $15,800 in three hours. That's quite a feat. "We never imagined we'd make that much," says his mom, Jordan Parks, who credits Facebook for helping to get the word out.
When he first heard that Matt, a family friend and colleague of his police officer father Bill Parks, was paralyzed from the waist down, Jackson immediately told his mom he wanted to set up a lemonade stand for him.

What started out as a card table in the driveway soon morphed into something much larger thanks to the vast response and viral activity of the Facebook page. "It got a little crazy and we thought, 'We can't have this in our driveway anymore,'" says his mom in a phone interview with ParentDish. So they moved the lemonade stand to a nearby parking lot to accommodate all the other donated goods and services including: a Sno-Cone truck, bouncy house, firetruck, police helicopter flyover, police horse and a man who brought lizards and such to create a "reptile experience" for the kids to squeal and squirm in delight.

5. Don't divulge your secret recipe. Doug didn't. But now that he's moved on to other pursuits (playing trumpet and piano are two of his favorite pastimes), he's sort of willing to share with other would-be entrepreneurs. According to his dad, the basic recipe can be found online in many places, but he and Doug modified it by using less sugar to ensure it had as much tartness and snap as people could stand. "The secret part was probably the lemon to lime juice ratio, which for Doug was magic at 6:1," says his dad.

6. Quality counts. Doug's lemonade was so good that he even got an unsolicited write-up on the renowned foodie site Chowhound. To wit, the highly impressed imbiber wrote, "We noticed him huddled under an umbrella during a downpour and just had to stop to buy some lemonade. His dad [was] there too, and they couldn't have been nicer. Brought the cup over to the car in the rain for us. But here's the thing -- it was the BEST, freshest lemonade I've had in years. Really tart, lots of fresh lemon pulp, obviously homemade and not from a mix, not too sweet. My chowhound self was really impressed." At the end of his post he gave explicit directions on how to find the stand.

7. Accept alternate forms of payment. Some of Doug's regulars were aware of his avid coin-collecting hobby and often paid with unusual coins, state quarters he didn't yet have or sometimes even foreign money. One woman used to give him books and another gave him a scholarship to a summer program called Workshop in the Woods. A member of the Coast Guard gave him a t-shirt and plastic football. Like Doug's father said, it was about the experience, not the money. And yet, ka-ching for college was a nice byproduct.

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What a great idea for children to have a lemonade stand to learn entrepreneurship. This has been a great American tradition and for great reasons. A lemonade stand teaches children independence, self-sufficiency, social skills, and so many other valuable lessons. I recently helped my son set up a lemonade stand in our neighborhood and the results were wonderful. He made over $124 in a just a few hours and after subtracting the expenses he made $109 as profit. He started getting motivated after reading this business book for children called The Little Green Money Machine. It also comes with a business stand that children can personalize for whatever business they want to have. Thanks for these great tips that we will definitely use next time!!

It's not the tax collectors, it's the theives....When you post things like this on any type of advertising, you will have a crook there in minutes, especially if they put how much they raised. Unfortuntately there will be people out there that will take advantage....It's tough times out there....Be careful!!!!!

They actually aren't "BOTS" they are real people that get paid a little over minimum wage to post ads for advertisement. My teen aged daughter just answered an ad online for one.

The Lemonade stand is great! My daughter and her friends had one every weekend when she was young for about a year. They had a great time. They never made the kind of money these people did but it was great for as a single mom I wasn't able to afford, the skating, movies and everything she wanted to do at that time so it was fantastic! They also sold brownies! Now that was a real lover of everyone!

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation has a story about the little girl, Alex, who passed away from leukemia and how she had started a lemonade stand to help other children. Visit the site, please. leukemiahttps://www.alexslemonade.org/

seven must have things for a lemonade stand:1. State and Fed tax usage number with address of business location:2. Meet criteria from FDA and Safety rules and regulations in your state:3. Child labor is against the law so make sure you do not fall into that problem:4 Insurance: 5. Make sure your business location is not against zoning laws. some places do not allow for any business operations within that zoned area.6. Advertising. Set aside 1/4 of your budget for advertising.7. Stay upbeat. Some days you will find that your business is not moving fast enough. Rememer that the economy is still hurting and not everyday you will have a banner sales day. Good Luck

How heartbreaking! This is the problem. For too long, small business including a child's lemonade stand require too many monitoring and protective agencies who will save us from ourselves. You should have included lawyer fees in case of. State Board of Health inspection and an architect's drawing of the proposed business. All told, you should anticipate $10000+ costs before venture opens. Whew, what a state we're in.

Bull. Maybe true if you are planning a big charity extravaganza lemonade stand, but in most towns, if a youngster simply sets up his or her lemonade stand in the driveway, nobody is going to complain. (The young entrepreneur won’t make big bucks, but it will still be a great experience.) I will admit, I did read a story last summer about someone who did get entangled with overzealous town officials, but I believe that is the exception, not the rule. And that article brought out such nasty comments alleging that kids were cover for undocumented workers, etc.—I found this article so much more positive and encouraging!

LeonYou are indeed correct and the Pittsburgh Airport (I think) had a lemonade stand on one of their signs - 'If you are going to to do business here, make it legal'. I can tell you that health dept regs and govt. regs are tough and minors selling lemonade or giving samples are indeed distributing food to the public that is not made in an approved facility. Some states are better than others, but it is a sad fact that these things, along with cookies at school birthday parties, are a thing of the past.

These aren't real people. They're BOTS! They post on every forum, are quite annoying, and are being given "free" advertising for their "products" by AOL. Perhaps one day, AOL will be able to filter out these "comments," which are always off-subject. Just report them and move along.

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